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Fernández-Ges, Andrés.

and selected, because of the scarcity of resources, not only economic but of mobilization
capacity and organization. He thought it was necessary to organize physically the future of
great cities in a constrained group of integrated actions that allow us to concentrate the
efforts in some concrete points that are the strategic lines for the city evolution. The small
actions or isolated buildings are also necessary for the city transformation, considering
the induced effects that strategic actions could generate in the intermediate and mediate
environment.

Ramos told, also in 1993, that cities play a key role in the attraction of development and
that it is impossible to attend all the aspects of the city at the same time. So, the strategy
of city transformation should be selective and concentrate in actions and pieces capable of
generating that transformation. He remarked the need of an “urbanism of action” against
the “urbanism of paper”, and the need of more flexibility in planning to give responses to
a changing environment.

In March 1996, the municipal plenary meeting agreed to create the Revision Office for the
City Master Plan. In November, a first document was drafted and sent to media, professional
bodies and business entities, holding public meetings with different neighborhood
associations during January and February 1997.

6. Public participation as a key factor to the strategical integration of the rail
land in 1997

The first draft of the revision was criticized by some public collectives, such as political
parties, neighborhood associations, professional Colleges of Engineers and Architects, etc.,
which questioned some for the proposals developed by the City Planning Department. The
draft was ambiguous about the HSR, the rail infrastructure and its urban integration. In the
meantime, the construction works of the HSR line from Madrid had started.

In the city, a deep and broad public debate started about how to take profit of the arrival of
the HSR, about the urban integration of the rail land and the best way of implementation.
One of the main requests was burying the railway across the city center. At that time the
rails ran on the surface creating an urban scar between the two neighborhoods of Almozara,
south from the rails, and Delicias, north from the rails. The College of Architects was
particularly critical with the extremely regulatory approach and the lack of urban projects
without strategic vision and priorities. The highest point of the debate was in July 1997,
leaded by Neighborhood Associations and the College of Architects (Monclús, 2006).

The planning draft provided to put the new HSR station in the same location of the former
station, in El Portillo area. After the first comments about the area the City planners agreed
the need of burying the rail tracks but they considered crucial to maintain the station in a
central location. With these suggestions, and many others, the first Advance of the Master
Plan was launched on October 1997.

7. The first Advance of the Zaragoza Master Plan

The Advance of the Master Plan was submitted for public consultation in October 1997.
Many allegations were made about the railway infrastructure and the arrival of the HSR.
According to the Annex 1 of the Master Plan memory, some political parties, such as Chunta
Aragonesista, proposed to locate the new station next to the airport. Others, like Nueva
Izquierda, suggested putting the station in the Avenue of Navarre, western part of the city,
where there was space and the railway goods infrastructure. The College of Engineers and
the Business Association claimed to maintain the station of El Portillo.

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